State of the League

The biggest news in the NA circuit has been Dyrus' decision to leave Epik Gamer to join Team SoloMid. Many "saw this coming" from a mile away. With Dyrus living at the TSM gaming house and having found success working with Reginald and Xpecial during WCG-Korea, the possibility that he would leave EG has been a constant source of water-cooler discussion, if the League of Legends community had some sort of water cooler by which to congregate.

Oh wait.

Team SoloMid is unquestionably a stronger team for this. While a fine player in his own right, The Rain Man (TSM's former top lane) had a different philosophy than his teammates when it came to League. At the highest level of competitive play, "different philosophy" will easily be the difference between second place and first, or between the quarterfinals and a group-stage exit. The decision may have been difficult for The Rain Man, just as it may have been difficult for the team to agree with his decision, but it was the correct move for everyone involved. And I truly doubt this is the last we'll see of The Rain Man.

The secret benefactors of this exchange, however, just might be Epik Gamer.

This isn't to say Dyrus was the cause of EG's woes. EG will always have difficulty maintaining a presence among the top teams until it manages to find a sponsor. With the immense amount of talent on this team -- the group routinely finds itself in the final round of the events it competes in -- it still baffles me that these guys haven't found a sponsor. But that's neither here nor there.

What is here and also there is the opportunity Epik Gamer has to properly round out its roster. With Dyrus on board, EG played the strange hand of two top-lane players and no real ranged AD. Sometimes Dyrus filled this role, other times it was Westrice and, on occasion, Dan Dinh picked up the sometimes-bow-but-mostly-guns. So yeah, anyone could play the role, but it was very clear none wanted to commit to it.

While this has quietly made EG a difficult team to read, it also made things more difficult for itself internally. Any regular support player -- professional or otherwise -- will agree that the role is much, much easier when you know the AD player you're laning with. Your lane's success rate becomes dramatically higher with consistency than with strangers, friends or teammates who don't dedicate themselves to the job. This synergy is why Chaox and Xpecial are considered such a strong duo despite TSM's recent slump (though many opine that the play at Hannover was, erm, sloppy), and it's why Counter Logic Gaming initially struggled when Chauster moved to support and Doublelift joined as the AD carry. The AD carry and the support need to understand and trust one another in order to achieve maximum success. This is an opportunity that Nhat Nguyen never really received; instead he was the operator of the AD carousel.

Because Dan Dinh has been so willing to adapt to the needs of his team, Epik Gamer is in a much better position to find a replacement than, say, Team Dignitas was when Jatt retired. Westrice should now be entrenched in the top lane (though that's reportedly up for debate), where he's best utilized. Nhat Nguyen should have the chance to play with a dedicated ranged AD (be it Dan or the future member). All Salce will have to do is adjust to a new person getting in his way as he makes everything around him explode.

This won't be a quick process; it's never a quick process for the team that lost a member. But last time EG had a roster change, it went on to have strong showings at the events it participated in (IPL3 and MLG Providence). There's no reason to think EG will perform at anything less than the its previous level when this short-term setback is resolved.